Safaa sits with her only son Hassan, age two. They moved from one town to another fleeing the violence. "I slept with my child in houses of complete strangers. I felt a stranger myself in my own country," said Safaa. "Death is no longer new to us. I feel numb; I can’t even provide affection for my own child who I know needs me."

Afghanistan: Fattema is 30 years old and her husband is a farmer who brings in about a dollar a day by working as a labourer. They have had six children but two of them have died. Here in this photo is Qandigul (on right) who is 2, and Naqib, 3. Qandigul is stunted, which is a result of malnourishment. This will affect Qandigul for the rest of her life. Fattema says "My children are hungry, I face so many challenges. My dream is to have my children healthy, and to have shoes."

Leila (pseudonym) and her four children have been living in this tent in Lebanon for three months. "We left Syria because our house was burned to ashes after our village has been sieged. We moved from one village to another until we came here," she says. None of her children go to school. She told World Vision that her children aren’t sleeping: "They have been seeing nightmares at night, waking up screaming."

An Afghani mother visits World Vision supported women's health centre where women are educated about family planning and sexual health. The centre also provides voluntary and confidential counselling and support services. Children in Afghanistan face some of the worst conditions in the world, with under-five mortality second only to Chad. One child in every five born in Afghanistan dies before reaching five years old. Each year 1,800 Afghan women die of pregnancy/birth related causes per 100,000 live births.

Bangladesh: An anguished mother following the news of the collapse of the garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which killed nearly 1000 people.

This Syrian grandmother looks after her sister, daughter and 11 grandchildren in a 13 by 13-foot space.

Lebanon: Refugees from the Syrian conflict, a mother sits with her four children in their shelter in Lebanon. Every item in their shelter is wet: The dirty torn sheets decorating the walls, the thick mattresses on which the family sleep, even the clothes that the children are wearing.

Lebanon: "We came just with our clothes, everything else is gone," says Fatima, a refugee from the Syrian conflict, with her sick baby. "We want peace. We want the bloodshed to stop, to live like one big family again."

Democratic Republic of Congo: A mother sits with her ill child at Kiroche Clinic near Minova, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which receives help from World Vision. Since 1998, an estimated 5.4 million people have lost their lives in the DRC, in the deadliest conflict since the Second World War.

Haiti: A mother and her baby sit in World Vision’s Baby Friendly Space - a clinic for pregnant women and mothers in Port au Prince, Haiti. The clinic is in a tent in Parc Accra, one of the scores of makeshift camps that house more than a million people rendered homeless by the massive earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010.

Mali: A boy sits with his mother as he is tested for Malaria in Mali. Conflict in Mali has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Somalia: Two mothers in Somalia return from a World Vision supported health clinic with their malnourished children. Parts of Somalia still face drought and hunger following the 2011 East Africa Food Crisis.